It was a jubilant crowd, and a bustling stage as most of the heavyweights on the Democratic side – including nearly the whole short list for 2020 president – stood together to proclaim that the moment has come to make…Read more

One year ago today was my very favorite Blue Jersey moment of 2016. On the floor of the House, a full-on revolt; a 25 hour sit-in on guns by Democrats in the wake of the shooting at a gay nightclub in…Read more

I actually like Donald Norcross. I’ve had a chance to have a couple of one-on-one conversations with him, and he’s a really pleasant individual. But as a Congressman, he has a lot of room for improvement.

Recently, he granted C-SPAN an extended interview on their call-in program. You can listen to the whole thing below the fold. I’ll admit that I only listened to a small part of it. But that was enough.

Norcross was proud to respond to the moderator’s question about one of his first votes in Congress – a vote to authorize the Keystone XL pipeline. Norcross claims it is about jobs, but this pipeline does not create any significant number of permanent jobs. Or even temporary ones. Instead, it creates a ticking time bomb plowing through America’s heartland waiting to spew its inevitable leaks into the water supply and crop fields that are so important to our people. It’s a paean to the oil lobby and not much else. It’s difficult for me to understand why Norcross’ response to why he supports the pipeline is “safety”, when just the opposite is true.

Norcross’ responses sound more like they came from Tom MacArthur and made me wonder which party Norcross belongs to. Apparently the moderator had the same conundrum, inadvertently calling Norcross a “Republican” during the interview.

We need to create jobs. Keystone XL doesn’t do that. But an accelerated program to invest in renewable energy does. Don’t be fooled by low gas prices. The Saudis and the Koch Brothers are smart people, and by keeping these prices temporarily low, it discourages investment in clean energy. But those clean energy investments create jobs – good jobs. Even for electricians. This is a lesson that Congressman Norcross needs to learn.

It wasn’t an even match Thursday night when Bob Menendez squared off against his Republican opponent state senator Joe Kyrillos for the first of 3 debates. Montclair State University was the setting and the debate was broadcast nationally (C-SPAN 2), in the state (NJTV, HQ’d at the school) and via livestream at Menendez for Senate.

Menendez walks away with this debate; Kyrillos looks unprepared. Very much the guy whose campaign would simply vaporize if it didn’t have Sheldon Adelson pumping money into it, and Chris Christie talking about it.